Statoil to avoid methanol supply disruption amid Norway strikes

01 June 2012 11:36[Source: ICIS news]

(recasts, clarifying sixth paragraph)

LONDON (ICIS)--Norwegian producer Statoil is confident that ongoing public sector strikes in the country will not affect its ability to supply methanol customers, a source with the company said on Friday.

On 24 May, state workers went on strike for the first time in 28 years over a salary dispute.

Shipping pilots are not involved in the action, but the ability to transport pilots to ships has been affected. While only vessels of a certain size require pilots, the Statoil source said this includes “most of our fleet”, meaning loading from the company’s Tjeldbergodden plant has been impeded.

However, measures are being taken to minimise the chance of methanol supply to its customers being interrupted, the source said.

“We are looking to load in other location to supply customers…we are trying to fulfil our commitments even with this handicap.”

While the source was confident there would be no impact on the wider methanol market in the short term, it conceded that this could not be guaranteed if the strike should continue for a longer period of time.

“For the moment we are confident we can fulfil our customer commitments without any disruptions, but we cannot predict the effect if the striking lasts a couple weeks more."